Apple Vice President of Retail Jerry McDougal resigned from Apple as of the end of business Friday, according to a new report from ifoAppleStore. The former vice president, who was said to be former Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson's "right hand man," reportedly said the departure was prompted by a desire to spend more time with his family, and not to the recent executive shake-up that led to the ouster of SVP of Retail John Browett.

McDougal spent ten years in sales at IBM and two years as Vice President of Product Marketing at PC Connection before moving to Apple in 2000. McDougal worked with Johnson since then, and he was involved in the conception and execution of Apple's retail efforts.

McDougal may have been considered as a possible replacement for Johnson, who departed in June 2011 to become CEO of JC Penney. Apple CEO Tim Cook instead hired former Dixons Retail CEO John Browett. From the outset, Browett's tenure seemed troubled, as the retail executive oversaw what many saw as a serious downturn in customer service and quality at Dixons' UK-based electronics chains like Curry's and PC World.

Meanwhile, Apple is still looking for a replacement to fill the SVP role, which is a critical hire for Cook. A couple sources inside Apple's retail division have pointed to another VP of Retail, Steve Cano, as a likely candidate internally. Executives from Coach, Nike, Starbucks, Burberry, and Disney are also reportedly being considered. With Apple down two top executives, however, the company may not have the luxury of waiting much longer to hire someone to fill both the VP and SVP positions.

Apple did not respond to our request for comment on McDougal's departure at the time of publication, but did confirm to All Things D that McDougal had resigned.

"Retail has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level, and they will continue the excellent work they’ve done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services and a focus on the customer that is second to none," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told All Things D. "Jim Bean is moving to Retail to help support our store teams. Jim has been at Apple for 15 years and is a great leader who understands our culture and focus on customer service."

Promoted Comments

Working as #2 for a decade, then being passed over for the #1 spot when it opens up in favor of a guy who very clearly does not understand how Apple works, and still not being offered the job when the new #1 is ousted because it turns out he doesn't understand how Apple works makes it a lot easier to take that personal time that you were already wanting.

Most people would like more time to do not-work stuff, whether that's family or hobbies or whatever. It's just that the enjoyment of work and/or the earnings from same sometimes is deemed more important. But when you lose that enjoyment, and can afford the [hopefully temporary] loss of earnings....

This doesn't have to be either spin or some soap operatic behind-the-scenes dealings. It seems utterly mundane and predictable to me. I just hope that Apple was right that they didn't need his expertise and experience, because being passed over for a promotion twice is pretty much the message that sends. ("We'll do fine without you." "OK, then I'm leaving.")

Working as #2 for a decade, then being passed over for the #1 spot when it opens up in favor of a guy who very clearly does not understand how Apple works, and still not being offered the job when the new #1 is ousted because it turns out he doesn't understand how Apple works makes it a lot easier to take that personal time that you were already wanting.

Most people would like more time to do not-work stuff, whether that's family or hobbies or whatever. It's just that the enjoyment of work and/or the earnings from same sometimes is deemed more important. But when you lose that enjoyment, and can afford the [hopefully temporary] loss of earnings....

This doesn't have to be either spin or some soap operatic behind-the-scenes dealings. It seems utterly mundane and predictable to me. I just hope that Apple was right that they didn't need his expertise and experience, because being passed over for a promotion twice is pretty much the message that sends. ("We'll do fine without you." "OK, then I'm leaving.")

If we want it or not Steve was the glue that held the right people together at ALL cost. Now that he is gone they are freer to move around and actually leave the camp. That is what it boils down to. And yes, change is gonna come.

If we want it or not Steve was the glue that held the right people together at ALL cost. Now that he is gone they are freer to move around and actually leave the camp. That is what it boils down to. And yes, change is gonna come.

Working as #2 for a decade, then being passed over for the #1 spot when it opens up in favor of a guy who very clearly does not understand how Apple works, and still not being offered the job when the new #1 is ousted because it turns out he doesn't understand how Apple works makes it a lot easier to take that personal time that you were already wanting.

Most people would like more time to do not-work stuff, whether that's family or hobbies or whatever. It's just that the enjoyment of work and/or the earnings from same sometimes is deemed more important. But when you lose that enjoyment, and can afford the [hopefully temporary] loss of earnings....

This doesn't have to be either spin or some soap operatic behind-the-scenes dealings. It seems utterly mundane and predictable to me. I just hope that Apple was right that they didn't need his expertise and experience, because being passed over for a promotion twice is pretty much the message that sends. ("We'll do fine without you." "OK, then I'm leaving.")

I don't think it gets any clearer than this. Being held at #2 when the top slot is wide open is a sure sign the company has stagnated your career in their minds. If you're not ready for retirement, look for greener pastures.

At my company, whenever someone leaves "to spend more time with family" it's a euphemism that means have been "resigned" - i.e. they weren't fired, but they weren't invited to continue working for the company for much longer.

If we want it or not Steve was the glue that held the right people together at ALL cost. Now that he is gone they are freer to move around and actually leave the camp. That is what it boils down to. And yes, change is gonna come.

Does no-one remember the mistakes made under Jobs' management? He was a great manager, and did amazing things (who thought in the mid-90s that the tech landscape would look like this?) but he made mistakes and wasn't the best people manager in the world.

This idea that Jobs kept Apple sailing along, happy and ship-shape is just demented. It's not related to reality in any way.

If we want it or not Steve was the glue that held the right people together at ALL cost. Now that he is gone they are freer to move around and actually leave the camp. That is what it boils down to. And yes, change is gonna come.

Does no-one remember the mistakes made under Jobs' management? He was a great manager, and did amazing things (who thought in the mid-90s that the tech landscape would look like this?) but he made mistakes and wasn't the best people manager in the world.

This idea that Jobs kept Apple sailing along, happy and ship-shape is just demented. It's not related to reality in any way.

Jobs made plenty of mistakes, just like anyone else. The thing is that Apple's successes were so great that everyone forgets about the misses, and credits everything to him because he was so much more "visible" than most other CEOs.

If you read the Jobs bio, Jobs was actually strongly against many things that ended up being huge successes for Apple, and things that (if you didn't already know the backstory) you would probably attribute to him erroneously. Two good examples: making the iPod compatible with Windows, and introducing the App Store on the iPhone. In fact, in both of those cases, Jobs was the only one against them; the rest of the entire executive team had to push him to change his mind.